The report notes that employees used the tool named ‘Overlord’ (apt, evil name), to look at users’ passwords and messages. While ‘Overlord’ was designed to moderate the platform, and cater to data requests from authorities, some employees used it to snoop on people without their knowledge. Sources told Vice that the tool was easy to use and some people took advantage of it to sneakily check on their ex-partners. Hemanshu Nigam, Myspace’s Chief Security Officer from 2006 to 2010, told Vice that every company has such a tool to comply with law enforcement requests: Nigam added that he introduced stricter security and data protection policies after he joined the company. Plus, he pointed out that there were strict access policies, training programs on usage, and managerial monitoring to ensure fair usage. And any employee who violated these policies was fired without warning. The company’s spokesperson told the publication that the tool still exists, but its access is extremely limited and logged. They said it enables Myspace to protect users “from security and cyberbullying threats.” This goes to show that way before reports of companies like Facebook and Google came to surface, snooping was a norm. We might not know if the popular websites of yesteryear kept a secret tab on its users. The entire feature on Vice is worth a read, check it out for more on how Myspace abused the tool to sniff out user data.
